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Microsoft Freon
Veramocor writes "MSNBC.com has an article posted from the WSJ about MS's new plan for living room domination, codenamed Freon. Freon will be capable of 'playing games but also offering television capabilities, such as pausing live TV and recording shows onto a computer hard drive.' The article then goes on to explain future potential business plans for XBox incarnations. The system does seem to have some great advantages. I must question their naming question however, we all know what a disaster the actual chemical Freon was. Here's to hoping, Cheers!" We mentioned the Xbox's planned evolution the other day, too, but without the fancy codename.
What we need is a GPL-licenced games console hardware design, built from relatively common components, that can be assembled by the user, or bought.
:-)
It wouldn't have to be very high-powered either, I would suggest an 68030 as the main CPU, with two 68000's one each as a sound and graphics processor - that's more processing power than is in a lot of the games in your local arcade, and perfectly adequate for the sort of games that most hackers like to play, (I.E. RPGs, beat-em-ups, shoot-em-ups, etc).
Just another of my excellent ideas
Microsoft can only dominate your living room if you own a television.
What happens to all those people who shelled out almost $400 at the begining of the xboxes life?
Do they now have to cough up another $500 for a X-Tivo just so they can play any new games?
Releasing new box after new box, and cutting off your established user base isn't going to win this system any fans...
At least an old pc can still play new games, albeit at lower resolutions, will the old x-box play new games, or will they handicap the new games so they aren't as impressive on the new box?
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
Worse than this, If MS thinks it can make a Video set top box better than SONY can, they are plain wrong. SONY is now a major manufacturer of professional video devices, and a major maker of game consoles, they have the know-how to tie all this together with their own chips and manufacturing plants. :-)
Nice try microsoft, but this is not going to work...
I think that some of the marketing/PR people of MS have been sick / on holidays / away these times.
Palladium : was originally the name of the statue of Pallas-Athenas, which was supposed to protect the city of Troie. Which was later invaded by greeks which used a subterfuge which will be known for centuries as trojan horses.
Freon : according to this web page, apart from evident utility in refigerators, "Only decades later did people realize that such chlorofluorocarbons endangered the ozone layer of the entire planet." and, even worse for MS : "The trade name Freon® is a registered trademark belonging to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DuPont)."
#include "coucou.h"
Company makes product which is thought to increase revenue! Seriously, what's the point of this "news". Companys make products all the time, it doesn't mean you have to buy them or it will increase world domination. This is now law, it's consumer choice (ok, ok, there's that little "monopoly" thing"). But that's mostly MS-centric thinking.
;)
Word on the street - Nike to make new shoe; increases running speed!
Kodak to make picutes more sentimental! Kodak moments to increase!
Lexus is rumored to make an expensive-looking car, and charge a lot of money for it!
What Linux (as a community) REALLY needs to do is create a sexy commercial featuring a scantily-clad Britney Spears doing an 'apt-get install' with wild camera angles and dance music. I'm thinking directed by Hype Williams, fish-eyed lens and all. Because we all know that advertising is the only REAL way to increase market share...or something.
Oh shit! The commercial will also have to feature this guy:
http://www.thelinuxpimp.com/
Trust me, no matter how monopolistic M$ will try to be (or is), teenagers will flock to a sexy OS.
Hmmm...so this is a bit off-topic. The point is, new M$ products don't excite me or qualify as news. Unlike a sexy linux/tux commercial. Did I say sexy? 'Cause I meant sexy. As in sex. Sexy.
"Uh, how about no, ok Scott?" -Dr. Evil
Most folk'll never lose a toe, and then again some folk'll...
It wasn't until the NES rose out of the console market's ashes did things kick back in gear. One thing that was great about the NES was it was stable and long lived. The same goes for the next market leader, Playstation.
Microsoft could very well risk killing the entire console market if it introduces too much confusion and churn into it. If they make consoles as complicated as PCs, a lot of buyers may just be turned off. Think of all the people, right down to the poorest you know, that have a console but no computer in their house.
This is really quite amazing to me. Microsoft truly is the most braindead company.
Why in the world would anyone buy an xbox now? We now know it's going to be replaced with "something much much better" in a little while.
Now instead of making money selling xbox's and xbox games, everyone will just hold on to their cash and wait for Freon(tm).
In the meantime xbox-exclusive game makers will bleed red, and drop support for the xbox.. when Freon actually makes it out the door, it'll have no games because the game makers aren't going to invest the time and money on a product that already burned them once.
Freon will kill all of MS's hopes in the console market. And you can bookmark me on that.
Every time there is an article about microsoft trying to take over our living rooms, everyone freaks out and no one can seem to understand why they are so desperate to do such a thing.
Well, simply put, they have to. Microsoft is a huge company, used to churning out huge profits. That was all fine and dandy as long as they could continue to create (or copy, incoporate, etc) new operating systems and software packages that people would continually purchase on a somewhat regular basis (every software/hardware cycle). The problem that they seem to be facing over the past few years is that NO ONE wants to upgrade their systems anymore. Their software, a huge part of their profits, has reached a point where users are quite happy (i know, how sad to be happy with their products) with them. SO, no matter how many rebates or promotions they offer, there are still a lot of computers out their running windows 2000 and even 98 and NT4. Why? Cause the new features that office XP has are worthless to many people.
So, how does this all tie in? Microsoft needs to find a new way to generate continual profits. It can't push people into buying software upgrades as they could in years past. The only way they will be able to sustain this money influx is to expand to new markets (video games, TV, various website services) as well as try and charge monthly costs for their OS (i believe that they are still trying to do so).
So, stop being suprised about all of this. It's gonna happen. And if you don't like it, don't buy their products/services. They currently don't have dominance in these other markets, and they won't as long as people don't buy all of their crap.
my last sig was too controversial... now, a new and improved useless sig!
The process that happens inside a refrigeration system is based on physics. It does not matter which gas. In fact, water, alchohol, and even good old CO2 all can be used as refrigerents and do just a good a job cooling food as Freon did. Well, I should note that water wouldn't be that good for freezing stuff, however for cooling you house it would work fine.
Why do these all work fine? Because they are based on physics. Physics which say temperature and pressure are directly related. Physics which say that as a substance changes state it must either gain heat or loose heat. That said, there are many substances which can be used safely in place of Freon.
That said, I should note that many new refrigerents can be quite flammable under certain conditions. Plus lets not forget what CFC based refrigents do to the ozone layer. A problem much worse for everyone then the ammonia.Reserved Word.
Will it record TV while playing a game?
Probably not.
Pointless.
Besides the TV, let's look at all the extra "stuff" the average person can hook up to their "Honme Entertainment System": 5.1 Stereo & speakers, Cable/Sat box, DVD, VCR1/2, Tivo-like recording device, game console. You can buy each of those "add-ons" for under $200 at the most, so they're attainable to your "average" consumer.
/. reader won't go for these all-in-one boxes, because we are willing to deal with the learning/troubleshooting curve to get everything hooked up correctly in order to get the *exact* components that we want.
/. reader, or "home-entertainment buff", there are at least 100 people who just want to plug in a few wires and *have the darn thing work*. It's with that majority that the big bucks are.
Do you realize what a major pain in the ass it would be to hook up all those separate devices for your average person who can't even figure out how to program their VCR's clock? *THAT* will stop the masses from buying some (or all) of those components, not the cost. Read: loads of average people who WANT to spend their cash on these add-ons, but won't because the entry knowledge is simply too much for them to bother learning.
This is where the "do everything" boxes come in. All you have to do is plug in perhaps 4 wires, all color-coded, and *viola*! Instant home entertainment center with all the bells and whistles.
Now your average
For every
Right. No, your other right. No, the other other right.
So much for other companies trying to raise funding to develop products in this market.
Oft-observed MS behavior:
Linux is Linux, if One need clarify their dist: <Dist>/GNU Linux
bsds are of course just BSD
"...we all know what a disaster the actual chemical Freon was."
Big assumption there cuz I don't know about any disaster. I do know that Freon had some very important uses in refrigeration and electronics which saved lives and improved the quality of life for millions.
How about just reporting the news without the emotional enviromental bullshit panic phrases. Thanks.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Freon Banned
Microsoft not just content with control they need to destroy the whole freezin planet as well.
-- RTFM:Slackware::Beer:Saturday
If MS does get the online gaming going, one of the new "features" of your XBox will possibly be a virus since they use a "modular" Windows and a hard drive. Won't that do wonders to their track record? Since I don't know for sure, is the xbox system operated from the hard drive or from a chip?
"...Freon box will need to be continually updated."
/. is an MS haters club, but come on...
I wouldn't think this is a huge obstacle. Really. If the thing has a hard drive then updating is a issue unless it were something major. Um, I use my XBox (cue flaming) as my primary (read: only) DVD player and i have to ask why is it hype? Kind of a logical step if you ask me. Your console plays DVD games, why not movies in the same format. Damn useful if you ask me. Which you didn't. But if you did...
"So what happens if just one of the 3 components breaks?"
First, what 3 components are you talking about? The DVD, HD and..? Motherboard? But even without knowing what those components are, the answer is simple- Fix/buy a new one or do without. The more capabilities a unit has, the easier it is to stop up the plumbing, naturally. It goes with the territory of any technology and it's something you have to live with. Other technologies have this inherent problem yet they thrive. Go figure.
"Microsofts track record for defects with the XBox"
Huh. Source please. Link it. The only ones I know of was a small batch of the consoles were scratching disks in Japan and I had my friend mention one overheating as a display model, but that's all I've heard, and since I own one, I like to think I listen for that sort of news. And as much as I love the PS1 I have to mention that it had it's share of issues depite it's popularity, namely the laser assembly burning out or jamming prematurally (discounting hot-swapping of import CDs). I know
"because they didn't want a hunk of plastic that didn't work after 2 years"
If it's anything close to an Xbox, the damn thing is as close to a computer as it'll get. And unlike a computer, it doesn't nessisarily need to be at the cutting edge of technology. I don't see us moving away from DVDs anytime soon. Will TV be changing that rapidly to make this obsolete in 2 years? What, exactly, will make this hardware obsolete? I agree that ll technology has a finite shelf life, but PVR? As long as you can update the software, technology like this will have a long lifespan.
Maybe it won't work, but your "why" needs a few less holes.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
"click the Windows Update item under the Start Menu once a week to keep your refrigerator up and running"
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. .)
You're not taking this quite far enough:
Toaster: Please enter your Passport (TM) Login
(...)
Welcome, Jim! How do you want your toast today?
Me: (Selects light brown)
Toaster: Thank you, Jim! . .
Jim, I'm sorry, but your XBox gaming subscription is two days late. I will be unable to prepare your toast until your account is in order. Choose an account to pay this from:
A) Checking
B) Savings
C) IRA withdrawal (early penalties apply)
D) Open a Microsoft(TM) World bank credit account! Jim, this is quick and easy, and the interest is only 42% APR. You won't pay anything for the first month, and all your home Microsoft appliances will automatically deduct their usage fees from this account!
Me: (Selecting A)
Toaster: . .
Thank you! (. .
Jim! Please click here to update to Microsoft(TM) Toast 3.4c! For only a nominal increase in rental fee, this required upgrade (refer to your EULA), you get the added capability of Microsoft(TM) YummyToast, in which the EULA allows you to add cinnamon and sugar or a fruit spread instead (MS(TM) Refrigerator also requires upgrade for EULA to allow these items in Microsoft(TM) HomeNecessities); this is a vast improvement over last year's NumNumToast with butter, Microsoft(TM) "I can't believe I ever used anything else besides Microsoft VeggieTales vegetable oil spread!" or cream cheese.
Me: (Throws toaster accross room.)
Security System: Jim! I see your toaster is in need of service! I'll have your Microsoft(TM) MediaPhone dial support immediately! (Connection charges apply. Average hold time: 3 hours. Estimated time to technician visit: two weeks.)
(Feel free to continue this story. -Jim)
Microsoft has always come down heavily in favor of aggressively protecting copyrighted material. They support the media giants in their efforts to make copy-proof one-time use media. They are talking about integrating code checking (intellectual property validation by another name) into future OS releases.
They've always taken this stance because first and foremost, they're a software company. But now they're moving into hardware. Companies like Dell and Apple, which have been up in arms about the media conglomerates' strong-arm tactics, have a vested interest in standing up for fair-use rights as computers become more tightly integrated with media creation and playback.
So far Microsoft has skirted the issue with ReplayTV, but if they try to take TV integration to the next level, they'll run smack-dab into the media giants.
Of course, based on their history, MS is likely to make deals with the media giants that restrict fair use by creating micropayment schemes or some other method of tracking and billing users for the wonderful things they're doing with the TV/game box.
This would alienate users in droves, especially when there are plenty of other competitors out there who aren't primarily software companies. Of course, MS could just wait for the hardware companies to do all the hard work of fighting the intellectual property battles with the media industry. Then they could step in after the dust clears, and reap the benefits without exposing themselves.
Whatever happens, Microsoft is literally getting so big and diversified that some of its products are bound to compete with each other in significant ways. I wonder, can Bill, as clever as he is, continue to advance Microsoft on all fronts without at some point having to scale back his ambitions?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ